Conventionally, an image forming apparatus has been installed to provide printing service in an open space such as a convenience store or a public use facility. The image forming apparatus generally performs charging depending on the number of copies, however, provides lower-priced image output service by discounting the service by some of the service price with advertisement information added to the image.
In this way, by differentiating a copy charge in the case where the advertisement information is added from a copy charge in the case where the advertisement information is not added, convenience is provided for both a user and an advertisement information provider.
In Japanese Patent No. 3571217, a user is able to set the number of advertisement images on a recording material on which an image is recorded, and a service charge is determined depending on an area of an advertisement image occupied by the number of advertisement images, therefore, the user himself/herself is able to decide an occupancy area of the advertisement image that is considered to be most appropriate of his/her own will by taking the service charge and a value of the advertisement image into consideration according to a document.
However, in Japanese Patent No. 3571217, in the case where advertisement information is increased when printing a document image of the user on one sheet of printing paper, an area for printing the document image of the user is diminished. In addition, in order to make the area for printing the document image of the user larger, pieces and a volume of the advertisement information are limited.